{"nrhp_refnum":"71000273","name":"Chieftains","other_names":["Major Ridge House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"80 Chatillon Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rome","county":"Floyd County","state":"GA","lat":34.28619715700006,"lon":-85.17217989899996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-04-07","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1973-11-07","areas_of_significance":["Native American","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story white frame house at 80 Chatillon Road, about two miles north of Rome, Floyd County, Georgia. It began as a hand-hewn log cabin built about 1792 by a Cherokee chief on the Oostanaula River and was later enlarged and remodeled.","why_significant":"It was the home of Major Ridge, a Cherokee chief and Speaker of the National Council, who ran a trading post and ferry here and lived in the style of a Southern plantation owner. The house is tied to Cherokee political life, including a reported council on the removal treaty, and shows the blending of Cherokee and white lifestyles. Its changing form reflects successive architectural fashions.","narrative":"Chieftains, at 80 Chatillon Road north of Rome, Georgia, began about 1792 as a hand-hewn log cabin built by a Cherokee chief beside the Oostanaula River. The logs, nine to ten inches thick, still lie inside the walls of today's two-story white clapboard house. Major Ridge, a Cherokee leader who served with Andrew Jackson in the Creek War of 1814, enlarged the cabin into a painted, columned home. He also operated the area's first trading post and a ferry, and an 1837 survey of Cherokee property recorded 223 acres, outbuildings, orchards and a nursery. Ridge became Speaker of the National Council and supported the removal treaty he signed in 1835. Local tradition holds that a council on the treaty met at the house and that Cherokees gathered there before the Trail of Tears. Later owners remodeled it, and a 1923 Georgian Colonial restyling added side wings. It now serves as a Cherokee history museum.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Built by a Cherokee chief (Major Ridge); 1920s remodeling by Lockwood and Poundstone of Atlanta","architectural_style":"Georgian Colonial restyling over an original log cabin","criteria":[],"status_note":"Excellent condition, unaltered, on its original site; owned by a service league and used as a museum, with plans to restore it to its Major Ridge-era appearance.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.568749-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/71000273.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000273/d15377cbf9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000273/d15377cbf9-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Culby (talk)en:User:Cculber007","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chieftains.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Culby (talk)en:User:Cculber007</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chieftains.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207984","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chieftains_Museum","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5097132"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/floyd-county/chieftains-71000273/"}